Fremont Canyon and also iz it spring yet.

Somebody send us somewhere tropical, plz and thank u.

Wyoming winters are rough. The length and temperatures are bad enough, but the nonstop wind is what makes them just the absolute worst. I found an article listing Casper as the 13th windiest city in the entire U.S. Many of the cities ranking above it were in Alaska, so in the continental U.S. we probably rank in at closer to #7. It's even windier here than in Chicago, "The Windy City." Kool thing to be known for, Casper. Rly gr8.

Last year wasn't so bad because winter was still a novel thing for us--we'd just spent 4 years living on a tropical island and in the deep South. We were actually missing winter, which made our first Casper winter feel exciting. I was hoping that feeling would carry us through an extra year or two, but nope. If St. George were a good option to find a job where we could pay off Jared's students loans then I'd be pushing for that. Ughhhh. Stinkin.

We really love lots of things about Wyoming. Just not this particular part of it. The summers are perfect and I do love having all 4 seasons, but man, take me back to those Georgia winters. They got cold enough for sweaters and even a lighter coat, and they'd throw us 2-3 light snow days a year. Then by late February the flowers were starting to bloom again. I'm starting to feel itchy about Evanston being our top option for Jared's next job. Evanston winters are even colder than Casper winters. At least we'll be 4 hours closer to St. George from there. Give Jared 4-day work weeks or give us death, because imma be needing regular 3-day weekends to head to warmer climes. (Really though, a 4-day work week is top priority when we get to the negotiations stage. They're increasingly becoming the norm in family medicine, and we want in.)

Whew, thanks for that vent sesh. Now for the real blog post! Before Jared headed to Evanston, we were really itching for an adventure. A new place to explore, but within an hour's drive, because the days are short and you only wanna keep your toddler trapped in a car for so long, you know? Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options within an hour's drive from us. All I could come up with was a trip to Fremont Canyon, which is just off of Alcova Lake to the south of us. I was hoping we could make it to the entrance of the canyon and explore on the rocks a bit, but the dirt road wasn't plowed so we had to settle for an overlook, where we hung out for 20 minutes and then turned back around since there really wasn't anything to do there.

We spotted a cute lil' dock and black sand beach on Alcova on our way back. We saw some ice fishers, threw some rocks on the ice, Savvy dug around in the sand, and then our hands all froze and we were on our way back to Casper. Two hours of driving for 30 minutes of "adventure." The saddest part is that we've been so cooped up that it was actually really fun.

After Jack's nap we were thirsty for more. So even though it was super windy, we threw the stroller in the trunk and took off for a chilly walk on the Platte River Trail (the North Platte runs right through the middle of Casper). When we got there, our trunk wouldn't open. This happens frequently. We're too cheap to get it professionally fixed, so Jared keeps doing these temporary fixes involving hot glue and wire hangers. But those take awhile, so we forewent the stroller and made it all of about 40 feet before Jack started rolling around on the path and then veered toward the river's edge to throw rocks in the water. And then we were all freezing because of the wind. The end. And that is the most exciting undocumented adventure I could think of to post about from the past few months haha

On an unrelated post-script note, have any of you ever lived in Cedar City? If so, hit me in the comments with anything you love or hate about it. I'm trying to get Jared to look into clinics down there. It's high enough in elevation that the climate is pretty similar to Utah Valley, just a little bit warmer in the winters. So you get a nice 4 seasons, plus you're only half an hour from St. George. Also so close to all the national parks, which is extremelyyyyy appealing to me. Also it looks like there are tons of cool trails for hiking and mountain biking right in and near town. Also a good size--small enough to feel kinda rural and be in need of doctors, with college town events, and also lots of cool festivals in the summer. I want to at least look into the possibility, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted.